DPL Reading List – March 9, 2018

Here are some of the articles we’ve been reading around this office this week.

4 Ways to Build an Innovative Team – “So the simplest answer is that you need to start by empowering the people already in your organization. But to do that, you need to take responsibility for creating an environment in which your people can thrive. That’s no simple task, and most managers have difficulty with it. Nevertheless, by following a few simple principles you can make a huge difference.”

Google teaches AI to fool humans so it can learn from our mistakes – “The problem isn’t with Google’s AI, but with a simple flaw that all computers have: a lack of eyeballs. Machines don’t “see” the world, they simply process images – and that makes it easy to manipulate the parts of an image that people can’t see in order to fool them. To fix the problem, Google is trying to figure out why humans are resistant to certain forms of image manipulation. And perhaps more importantly, it’s trying to discern exactly what it takes to fool a person with an image.”

UX Case Study: reimagine the ecommerce experience for IKEA – “The goal was to reimagine the ecommerce experience for IKEA website, while maintaining its value: Happiness is not reaching your goal. Happiness is being on the way. We followed the double-diamond design model and solved the identified problems by a lo-fi prototype and a killer idea of IKEA hotels & restaurants.”

The 7 Books Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Says You Need To Lead Smarter – If you spend time with Satya Nadella-as I did on several occasions this year while researching our new cover story on the dramatic impact he’s had on Microsoft since being named CEO in February 2014-you quickly learn how much books matter to him. He reads them, recommends them, and turns to the lessons he’s learned from them again and again as he explains his approach to running one of the largest companies on the planet.”

A Wild UI Experiment With The iPhone X’s Front-Facing Camera – “Media artist Peder Norrby has developed code to give his iPhone X its own trompe-l’oeil effect. Trompe-l’oeil is an age-old trick used by painters to create the illusion of 3D depth on a 2D plane. And on the iPhone X, it’s downright mesmerizing. The touchscreen itself seems to melt away as the phone transforms into a portal to an infinite abyss. Angle the phone, or your own head, and you can even peek inside, as if you’re looking through a peephole into another room, or inspecting a can of Pringles for the last few crumbs.”

The Design Theory Behind Amazon’s $5.6 Billion Success – “From an aesthetic point of view, Amazon’s web store is neither simple nor beautiful-two things we expect of good design. Instead, it focuses on simplicity of experience, process, and functionality. For many designers, the idea that an experience with Amazon’s visual complexity succeeds is somewhat confounding. So, how might a designer look at Amazon to understand why it works, despite-if not because of-its aesthetic?”

The ISS Is Getting A Robot Head That Floats Around Smiling At Astronauts – “Designed in a collaboration between Airbus and IBM, CIMON is a robotic assistant meant to assist astronauts as part of an ISS mission later this year. Its brains are powered by Watson, and with a built-in camera, it can recognize its fellow crew members. CIMON will assist in experiments with crystals, and-this isn’t a joke-solving a giant Rubik’s cube. Over time, CIMON will learn to become a more useful crew member, making it easier for astronauts to complete routine tasks and serving as an early warning signal for problems.”